Microsoft Word - Jenny dreamed (41 page)

"Stop it," Jenny yelled, struggling to free herself from his grip. "Let go of me! You have no right-"

The last of his self-control slipped away at that claim from Jenny. He was the father of her child, and she'd told him he had no right to that privilege, he was her husband and yet he had no right to touch her. He was damned tired of hearing her define what his rights were.

Careless of the fact that he was hurting her, he jerked her forward, slipped his right arm around her shoulders, and caught her body against his, firmly grasping the slim column of her neck as fingers clutched a handful of curls at her nape. "You married me," he said hoarsely, lowering his head until his lips were a breath away from her mouth, "and that gives me the right!"

"No ..." Jenny's protest was cut off as Dev's mouth touched hers, then ground against its softness with relentless pressure until she surrendered and parted her bruised lips, fighting the stir of pleasure she felt as his tongue invaded and vanquished her defiance. Caught up by her body's betrayal to her spiraling senses, Jenny melted against him. Dev felt her response as the stiff resistance flowed out of her and, still cupping the back of her head with his right hand, he loosed her arm to slide his left hand down her back and curve his hand beneath the firm, rounded flesh of her derriere. Every inch of their bodies was touching, and Dev knew a moment of triumph as he pressed closer still and Jenny sucked in a deep breath as the prominent swell of his yearning flesh prodded her belly through the thin layers of their clothing.

His first thought in pulling her into his arms had been to submit her to a kind of punishment for all the hurt she'd dealt him, but that had fled all too quickly as a bittersweet longing replaced vengeance. He could think of nothing when the full softness of her breasts was crushed against his chest, when the familiar contours of her body were molded so closely against his that they seemed to be one shape.

Too late to reject it, the unbidden image of Jenny in Rodrigo's arms floated before his closed eyes, and he silently cursed his desire to have her back. Even as he broke away from the sweetness of her mouth and buried his head against the scented, ebony waves that curled forward around her throat, he groaned against a torturing vision. He saw Jenny lying naked on a bed, her pale, velvet skin a shocking contrast against the dark, swarthy color of Rodrigo's body as he moved against her, as his hands roamed in trespass over the body of the woman Dev had thought was his. Had thought was his, he brooded, and his brooding was translated into the physical as his gentle caresses became 'rough, impatient fondling.

Jenny had lost a sense of time and place. She cared about nothing but the delight of being in Dev's arms again and the passionate answer of her body to the feel of his hands, to the hard, familiar length of his body. He still wanted her; it was something that he couldn't disguise, even if his voice had been harsh, and his jealousy had erupted in that vulgar reference.

Suddenly Jenny realized the change in Dev's manner, and a feeling akin to fear pulsed through her entire body. It was as if a different man held her, a stranger intent only on his own gratification. As one of his hands firmly gripped the back of her neck, her head was bent back under a bruising, lust-filled kiss and his other hand slipped into the neckline of the jerkin, to maul the tender flesh of her breasts through the thin material of the linen shirt.

She could not breathe, and she struggled against Dev's iron grip, but it only seemed to add to his pleasure. She was held too closely to even kick out at him, and she was no match for the power of the corded, sinewy muscles that crushed her body to his. Marshalling every ounce of strength she possessed, Jenny pushed at his chest with one hand, brought the other up to the warm, bare flesh of his nape, and dug her fingernails into his skin.

The fingers that had been roughly teasing at her nipples were withdrawn and her mouth was free of the domination that had robbed her of breath as Dev drew back with a sharp, cursing exclamation, glaring at her as he raised his hand to the back of his neck and came away with his fingers smeared with the blood her desperate measure had drawn. Jenny stood her ground, furiously returning his glare, her lips bruised and pouting, halfparted as she inhaled deeply to stave off a feeling of faintness.

"What's wrong, Duchess?" Dev snarled with a cold, sweeping appraisal of her body from heavy-lidded eyes that were a menacing dark gold. "Can't -you make love any more without all those romantic, flowery endearments your Spanish lover hands out? Or are you too good for me to touch now that his lordship's back in the saddle?"

Before she consciously knew she'd had the thought, Jenny's hand came up to avenge the crude insult, slamming against his cheek with a loud, smacking slap that wiped the smirk from his face. She waited tensely for his reaction, poised to retreat from any retaliatory violence, but Dev only stared at her with an odd mixture of anger and respect as he rubbed at-the reddened imprint her palm had left on his face. "If any other woman had tried that,"

he said, with the shadow of a cynical smile that mocked his own restraint, "she'd be flat on her back now." Then he grinned and added, "Must be my natural respect for royalty, eh, Jen?"

"Or more likely the fact that you knew yon deserved it!" Jenny retorted with a scornful disdain for the "mercy" he'd shown her. The hour was growing late, too late for her to waste time telling him exactly what she thought of his high-handed, overbearing attitude. She'd come to see her son and see him she would, without any further interference from his vain, conceited brute of a father! "I want to see the baby now, Devlan," she insisted in a stern voice, "and without a recurrence of the mauling you just gave me, if you don't mind. I have had more than my share of unpleasantness this evening, and my patience has grown thin."

Dev stepped back, bowing from the waist in a mocking display of gallantry. "Your wish is my command, m'lady! If you'll follow me, I'll try to control my instinct to 'maul' you, but there's one thing I want to make clear right now. Thomas is asleep and I don't want him disturbed, so you can forger about holding him." Dev raised a brow, noting the sudden stubborn set of her chin and the smoldering look of resentment she threw at him.

"Agreed?'"

"As long as you keep your hands to yourself," Jenny answered spitefully, "I will agree to your demand. If you can control your animal instincts, I can certainly contain my maternal feelings, much as they've been trampled upon by you and others!"

Dev opened his mouth, thought better of what he was about to say, then closed it and stalked off. Jenny practically had to run to keep up with his long, angry strides as he headed for the room his son shared with the woman who'd cared for him since birth.

Twenty-Four

It was an hour past midnight when Jenny finally slipped back into her rooms, awakened the sleeping Shiona, and inquired whether Rodrigo had any inkling of her absence. "Oh, m'lady

... he was ... ye'r husband was," Shiona was ashamed to admit to her mistress that he had spent the evening in a noisy revel, that she had blushed at the sounds of lewd feminine laughter mixing with the coarse voices of several of Rodrigo's hirelings as they entertained themselves in a drunken orgy of wine and sex. "The Laird was too occupied to note tha' ye were gone," she finally managed to state, blushing again at the memory of his debauchery.

"Thank God for that," Jenny whispered, relieved for once that Rodrigo was a man of lusty appetites. He had never taken pains to hide his almost nightly excesses from her. In fact, she'd often thought that he encouraged his bed partners to utter loud cries of ecstasy, hoping that they would disturb her own sleep. She'd come to the point, though, where she could ignore the sounds of passion, feigned or real.

"Ye've seen the babe, then?" Shiona's expression was hopeful in the dim light of the one candle that was still burning.

"I have," Jenny answered softly, her voice full of wonder as she thought about that moment when she'd first glimpsed her son. "Oh, Shiona, he's so beautiful! It breaks my heart that I can't have him here, but I've become resigned to the fact that he truly is safer on the island."

There was a loud giggle from Rodrigo's room, and Jenny remembered the late hour. She would never be able to explain why she was up and dressed as she was if he should come in.

"Go now, I'll tell you more tomorrow ... in the garden." Shiona smiled and turned away, but Jenny caught her arm and she looked back with a puzzled glance. "Thank you, dear, for the risk you and your father took in my behalf. It will be hard to repay such kindness."

"'Tis my pleasure, lady, and my father's, too, t'see ye'r eyes happy again. Rest easy tonight, Lady Jennifer!"

Jenny smiled and watched the girl leave. She would be able to rest easy tonight, for the first time since the baby's birth. The tension and excitement had worn her down, and she found herself yawning as she quickly pulled off the disguise, and, remembering how close Rodrigo was, cautiously buried the hose and jerkin under several layers of stored clothing. Too tired to search for her gown, she slipped beneath the coverlet to sleep in the nude. Despite a strong desire for sleep, she lay awake for a while, remembering.

What hateful things they had yelled at each other, she and Dev. And still, when they were alone, he hadn't been able to resist his desire to reach out for her, and she hadn't been able to mask her response to the familiar strength of his arms. That was what their love had come to, the physical reaction to remembered passion, with little of the tenderness that had

.once been theirs. Still, she was glad he was alive, even if he preferred Fiona to her, even if he thought she loved Rodrigo.

The baby. Jenny smiled to herself in the darkness, remembering her first sight of the sleeping infant. Dev had finally taken her to the room the baby shared with his foster mother, Meg, rousing the woman from her sleep to ask her to leave them alone with him for a few minutes.

Meg had wiped at her heavy-lidded eyes, shocked to see Jenny, a trace of fear in her pale face until Dev had assured her in a whisper that little Jared, as she knew him, was staying in her care.

Jenny had approached the cradle in a kind of awe, knowing consciously that the tiny, perfectly formed little boy within it was hers, yet unsure of herself because she'd never had that close, intimate contact with him that most mothers experience in the first month of their child's life. She would have to get used to handling him, but loving him came naturally.

His sturdy body was swathed in an embroidered gown, his head well-formed and covered by a pale, golden fuzz. Hands and feet so tiny, yet with a hint of broadness across his chest that suggested he would have his father's build.

The urge to touch him, to hold her own child close, was so strong Jenny'd had to clench her hands at her side. There would be time for that in the future. When he-Jenny had a hard time not thinking of him as Nicholas-when Thomas had stretched restlessly and begun to whimper, Jenny's first instinct had been to reach out for him, but Dev had caught her hand, warning her to be still. The door opened a moment later, and Meg had hurried in to comfort the boy, scooping him up to let him suckle at her large, pendulant breasts.

Thomas had quieted instantly, contentedly nursing while Meg soothed him with a singsong chant. Jenny had turned away, her eyes stinging with tears of frustration. She couldn't have nursed him, anyway; her breasts had been bound tightly with linen bandages to suppress her milk flow, but it was the idea that another woman had supplanted her in that most intimate of maternal duties that left her feeling so bitterly resentful.

Dev had brusquely hurried her from the room and once outside, had faced her with a frown.

"I'm just thinking of him," he explained. "You'd confuse him, maybe even scare him if you handled him now."

She'd thought then that he was still trying to hurt her. How could a mother scare her own child? "I would never have believed you could be such a devoted father, Dev," she'd retorted scarcastically, and, before she could stop herself, added, "I will never forgive you for your part in this, never!"

But despite her anguish, Dev had not apologized or asked forgiveness. He'd stared at her for a minute, scowled and grabbed her by the wrist, practically dragged her through the house, and deposited her on a hard, high-backed bench that sat in the entry hall, like some unwelcome bundle, And he hadn't said a word of farewell, just disappeared in the direction of the kitchens and sent Gilliam out to her.

Jenny's pride, already a shambles from his earlier treatment, was stung to the quick by Dev's callous, silent rejection, and she brooded upon it, cursing herself for being a blind, love-struck fool as sleep finally overcame her. She had no way of knowing that he'd treated Fiona the same way, ignoring her attempt to COnverse and stalking off to his own room without a word of explanation. It was a night for brooding, Fiona sullenly heading for her rooms, sulking over the fact that Jenny's unexpected visit had deprived her of Dev's attentions.

But by the time she finally slept, Fiona's irritation had dissolved, for in her agitation she had seen the answer to more than one of her problems. She thoroughly disliked Jennifer, for her striking beauty as well as her past relationship with Devlan. Dev was obviously mistrustful of the girl already. With a little adept manipulation on her part, Fiona was sure she could discredit Jenny and totally destroy any remnants of feeling Dev still had for her, and, at the same time, assure the success of the overthrow of Rodrigo. If she and Dev were "betrayed"

the night before the tournament, her knights could still manage the assault with the additional support provided by her incensed subjects, .and the one night's detainment in the castle dungeons would be a minor discomfort. And by then, she would have Dev thoroughly convinced that Jenny had done the betraying to serve her own selfish ends.

Jenny had been asleep for an hour when something alerted her to the chilling fact that she was no longer alone. She came awake suddenly, her sleep-fogged eyes blinking against the harsh light of candles held close to her face by disembodied hands. She could see nothing beyond that bright halo of light, but even as she tried to shield her eyes, her hand was seized and she was jerked to a sitting position. "Who ... who dares touch me!" she cried out. A man's lewd, mocking laughter came in reply and Jenny found herself in the grip of a huge, hairy paw. She clutched the bedclothes around her in an attempt to shield her naked body.